


Embarrassment of Riches

by rebelontherocks



Series: Tribute for the Prince [1]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: M/M, outsider pov, shoma has a crush on javier, this fic is about shoma being unimpressed by everything and everyone around him, which annoys him to no end, yuzuru also annoys him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-13
Updated: 2018-03-13
Packaged: 2019-03-31 02:10:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13965099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebelontherocks/pseuds/rebelontherocks
Summary: Shoma watches on, as Javier and Yuzuru skate around each other, playing some sort of half-hearted catch game, where Yuzuru does a poor job of pretending he doesn't want Javier to grab him, and Javier does a poor job of not looking like a besotted fool. That dumb, star-struck look on his face is almost enough to make Shoma get over him. Almost.





	Embarrassment of Riches

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was inspired by Shoma's blissed out expression while hugging Javi, and then his 'hello darkness my old friend' face when Javi and Yuzu were having their moment in front of him.

Shoma isn't jealous of Yuzuru, no matter what other people might think. Not of his accomplishments. Not of all the media attention. Definitely not of the crazy, screaming, fans. Yuzuru is nice to him, and always tries his best to make sure Shoma feels included when everyone around them is speaking a language he doesn't understand. He's an awful teacher, and Shoma hopes he never gets it into his head to become a coach after retirement, but he's always generous with his knowledge to everyone who asks him for help, no matter how terrible he is at explaining himself. So, people might think Shoma resents Yuzuru's success, or maybe feels overshadowed, but he doesn’t. He knows Yuzuru's worked hard for everything he has, and Shoma would never begrudge him that. 

 

But. 

 

There's one thing Yuzuru has that he didn't have to work hard to get, and it's the one thing Shoma lets himself envy in his pettiest, most spiteful, moments. 

 

Javier Fernandez has a nice smile, it's big and kind, and it's always brightest when it's turned on Yuzuru. It was the first thing Shoma noticed about him when he turned senior and started seeing Javier regularly at competitions. The fond way he always looked at Yuzuru always stuck with him. Javier and Yuzuru were already training together by then, and to Shoma they always felt like a package deal. Buy one world-class figure skater get one for free! Back then, he was too young to understand why it pissed him off that Javier would ruffle his hair, and pat his back, as if Shoma was a particularly well-behaved kid, or worse a clever puppy, only to skate away and hold Yuzuru by the waist and touch his neck, not like a child at all, like something precious. Or rather, he wasn't too young at all, some things just became clearer in hindsight. 

 

So, no, Shoma isn't jealous of Yuzuru, but he is Jealous that he gets to make Javier smile like that. Shoma and Yuzuru are only three years apart, but Shoma might as well be a decade younger for all that Javier would never consider looking at him that way. Of course, it doesn't help that Shoma can't speak English, and thus far he and Javier have only traded the barest of pleasantries alone, and all other more extensive conversations had Yuzuru as a mediator, which vexes Shoma to no end. He has no true desire to learn English in all honesty – it's an ugly, clunky language, and listening to Yuzuru speaking it makes his teeth hurt. 

 

He wouldn't mind learning Spanish, though. It sounds much nicer, smoother and soft. If he doesn't pay attention some of the softest vowels could almost be mistaken for Japanese. The type of Spanish Javier speaks is called Castilian. There are more languages in Spain, but Javier is from Madrid, so he speaks Castilian – or so a late night wikipedia binge informed him. The word reminded him of a type of cake his grandma liked. He thought maybe Spaniards brought it to Japan, and maybe he could talk with Javier about that, a little bit of shared history. Turns out, it was Spain's neighbours, the Portuguese, who got to Japan first, who did. He remembers falling asleep thinking Europeans must be allergic to standing still. 

 

Javier rarely does. He's always in motion, but it isn't annoying, like Yuzuru's adrenaline fuelled hyperactiveness. Javier moves with purpose, with the same decidedness that makes him such an amazing skater. Shoma can see him now, practicing his short programme, he skates with the same ease and grace with which he walks. Next to Shoma, Yuzuru is also watching Javier, while listening to music and bouncing on the balls of his feet. Yuzuru is ever only beautiful when he's on the ice, Shoma thinks, allowing an edge of bitterness to bite his thoughts, he isn't nearly as graceful off of it. Shoma has seen him trip on his own feet too often. He studies Yuzuru from the corner of his eye, he supposes Yuzuru is attractive enough. He's pretty, sure, but he doesn't have the bone structure to ever be handsome, and allowing some of that bitterness to spread, he muses that he isn't beautiful either. Except when he's skating, a tiny, mocking, voice, who sounds suspiciously like Yuzuru himself, reminds him. Yes, damn him to hell, he's downright breath-taking then. The absolute asshole. 

 

Yuzuru notices Shoma staring and elbows him on the side with a smile. Shoma just scoffs and elbows him back. 

 

"I don't think he's going to miss the podium, this time around," Yuzuru says, all of sudden, nodding towards the ice where Javier just landed a clean sal. 

 

"I don't know how he missed it the last Olympics," Shoma replies. 

 

"I don't either, but I'm glad he did." 

 

Shoma fixes him with a perplexed stare. Javier's success always seemed important to Yuzuru, second only to his own. 

 

Yuzuru just shrugs in the face of Shoma's confusion. "He would have retired if he got a medal in Sochi." 

 

Shoma resists the urge to call him a selfish bastard, and instead plasters on a sly smile, before saying, "And he wouldn't have fucked you." 

 

"No, we fucked before Sochi." Shoma tries not to show how surprised he is by that admission. Yuzuru continues, "He wouldn't have fallen in love with me, though." 

 

He smirks at Shoma, before elbowing him again, and taking off his skate guards to go join Javier on the ice. Shoma watches on, as Javier and Yuzuru skate around each other, playing some sort of half-hearted catch game, where Yuzuru does a poor job of pretending he doesn't want Javier to grab him, and Javier does a poor job of not looking like a besotted fool. That dumb, star-struck look on his face is almost enough to make Shoma get over him. Almost. 

 

\--- 

 

He shares a room with Yuzuru in the Olympic village. Yuzuru was, of course, offered a single room, but he turned it down, under the guise of politeness. He either didn't care, or didn't realise, that since the Japanese committee has an even number of people that meant he was depriving someone else of their own single room. Shoma didn't say anything. He knows the true reason why Yuzuru turned down the room. Javier has his own single room, and since the Spanish committee is much smaller there's fewer chances for someone to catch Yuzuru slipping in. 

 

Tonight, it seems Yuzuru is going to sleep in his own bed, though. The short skate is only a couple of days away, Javier and Yuzuru probably want to save their energy. Yuzuru is on his bed, reading something on a tablet and laughing from time to time. 

 

Shoma wants to go to sleep. Practice is early tomorrow, but he feels restless, keyed up against all odds. He turns on his side to face Yuzuru, and asks the question that has been rattling around in his head since that afternoon, "I thought you and Javier only got together after Sochi..." He doesn't have the nerve to finish the sentence. To ask that crude 'when did you fuck?', so he just lets it taper off and hang suspended in the stillness of the room. 

 

"We only started going out after Sochi, but we had sex two weeks before the Olympics." Yuzuru turns on his side too, elbow against a pillow and cheek resting on his open palm. He sounds amused, smile impish, like a kid at a sleepover who can't wait to see who has the most outrageous exploits to share. "I was sleeping over at his place, I was going to sleep on the guest room, but we started talking about the Olympics, I guess I started crying because of the nerves, Javi tried to calm me down, and ended up kissing me." He smiles. "I didn't see much of the guest room that night." 

 

Shoma rolls his eyes, and Yuzuru laughs. He guesses he 'started crying', as if. Someone, sometime ago, must have told Yuzuru he cried pretty, and the asshole never looked back. He turns on the waterworks, and the cameras start flashing. For all companies back home love plastering Yuzuru's face all over every manner of dumb product, no one has yet had the foresight of slapping his weeping face on a tissue box. It would sell like hot buns. "How was it? Your first time?" Shoma figures there's no harm in taking advantage of the sleepover mood. It's not like Yuzuru hides his relationship with Javier from him, but he picks and chooses what he shares. Sometimes he'll say the most explicit shit with little to no prompting, other times he'll keep his lips sealed and just smirk and drop some innuendo. 

 

"My first time with Javi, or my first time ever?" 

 

That's news too. "Your first time wasn't with Javier?" 

 

"No, it was with a hockey player. His little sister had practice at the Cricket Club, and he came pick her up a couple of times a week. He watched me skate sometimes. One day I guess he got the courage to ask me out, we went out to dinner, and then he took me to his house and fucked me over the back of a couch," Yuzuru says, smiling at the memory. It doesn't sound particularly nice to Shoma, but he guesses Yuzuru must have enjoyed himself. 

 

"He just wanted to have sex with you?" He asks, trying, and failing, not to sound concerned. 

 

"No, he wanted to date me, but I told him I was in love with someone else, but that we could have casual sex if he wanted." 

 

"Did you?" 

 

"A couple of times, then he said it wasn't working for him. He wanted a real relationship. So we went our separate ways. We still email sometimes, though. He's a nice guy, "Yuzuru says. "Did I upset your virgin sensibilities?" 

 

Shoma refrains from telling him he isn't a virgin at all. That would shift the focus of the conversation to him, and that's not what he wants. "I had no idea you slept with some guy before Javier, that's all." 

 

"Well, for a while there I wasn't sure he'd ever admit he liked me too. I wasn't about to pine forever and die a virgin." He rolls his eyes, and Shoma tampers the irrational urge to throw a pillow at his face. 

 

"You should have tried crying all over him sooner." 

 

"Turns out the secret was to do it when it was just the two of us, and there wasn't a judging panel nearby." 

 

Shoma laughs despite himself. Being infatuated with Javier would be so much easier if he didn't genuinely like Yuzuru, all the instances he wants to strangle him notwithstanding. 

 

"Does Javier know? About the hockey player?" Shoma asks, wondering how Yuzuru dealt with it, if he ever did at that. 

 

"He's never admitted it, but I'm pretty sure he kissed me that night because he saw us together," Yuzuru says, grinning from ear to ear. Of course, he would find the idea of Javier finally making a move in a fit of jealousy delightful. "After he kissed me he apologised, said he knew I had a boyfriend, and that it was rude of him." 

 

"You think he was planning on kissing you from the start?" 

 

"I think he was fine with staying just friends as long as he had my undivided attention. He was fine with me beating him in competitions if he was the one winning at having me. Once he realised someone else had a stronger claim, he couldn't handle it. Textbook, really." 

 

Yuzuru looks smug and confident now, Mr. I got an Olympic gold medal and my man, but Shoma's got his number. "You say that now, but I bet back then you were a mess, overanalysing his every word for clues." He laughs when Yuzuru flips him off. 

 

"Of course I was, you idiot, I was barely nineteen, I had to deal with the fact that I liked guys, that I liked Javi, who ran hot and cold like a broken faucet, and on top of that I had to stomach Tim Horton's shitty coffee. I was in hell Shoma." 

 

"Well, it all worked out in the end, and you like tea better, anyway," Shoma says, feeling fond. Yuzuru turns his face to the side to face him and gives him a small grateful smile. 

 

"Yeah, well, not for Javi's lack of trying to find reasons to ruin things." 

 

"He looks at you like the sun shines out of your ass, come on." And just like that Shoma isn't feeling that fond anymore. Yuzuru can sometimes miss the plot and go from playful venting, to full on whining. Shoma is not in the mood to hear all about how Yuzuru almost walked away because Javier didn't fold his socks. 

 

"You don't know him like I do," Yuzuru says, shaking his head. And isn't that exactly Shoma's problem. He has an embarrassing crush on his friend's boyfriend and he barely knows him, it's pathetic. "Javi likes things simple, uncomplicated," Yuzuru continues, "After Sochi he told me we had to stop, because he couldn't focus, couldn't stop thinking about me." 

 

"Shit, what did you say to that?" Shoma can concede that that is a little more serious than messy socks, even if it stills sounds a bit like humble-bragging to him. 

 

"I told him he should work harder then, because I was skating just fine and I couldn't stop thinking about him either." 

 

Of course he did. "Of course you did." Honestly, Yuzuru is such an asshole. Shoma almost feels sorry for Javier, except he clearly likes it. "Then what? I'm guessing he got over it, since you're still together." 

 

"He started training harder, and after practice we'd go to his place and he'd fuck me even harder, to prove a point." He smirks. "Somewhere along the way, between then and now, he fell in love with me." 

 

"Congrats on your x-rated fairy tale, I guess," Shoma says, affecting a sort of playful sarcasm that sounds forced even to his own ears. 

 

"Thanks, I worked hard for it," Yuzuru says. There's just enough laughter in his voice to make Shoma uncertain whether he's serious or joking. 

 

He falls asleep trying not to think about Javier fucking Yuzuru into the mattress while Yuzuru moans encouragement with the kind of filthy language he reserves for his Japanese friends, because it doesn't fit his childish, hyper-focused, prodigy image. If the world only fucking knew. Shoma is annoyed with himself for not being more annoyed. 

 

\--- 

 

In the days that follow, Shoma skates a pretty good short program, Yuzuru sets an Olympic record but falls short of beating his own world record, Javier places a distant second to Yuzuru but doesn't seem all that bothered, judging by the fact Yuzuru stops sleeping in his and Shoma's room, altogether. Shoma doesn't dwell on all the wild sex they're probably having and instead hangs out with his friends and tries to enjoy the Olympic experience. He's surprised by how not overwhelming it feels. In many ways it's no different than any other skating competition, except there are more athletes around, other than figure skaters. Shoma looks his fill and decides the speed skaters are the hottest, followed closely by the snowboarders, but maybe that's just because they look so cool. He smiles at everyone but speaks only with the Japanese contingent. The Olympic spirit is all well and good but he's still not learning any fucking English. Yuzuru, when Shoma sees him, seems to be doing his best to leave people from ten different nations with the impression the Japanese are a loud people with no concept of personal space, and who like to lie on top of random bits of furniture. Shoma wishes he knew how to speak English then, if only to follow behind Yuzuru and make excuses for him. 'I'm so sorry, he spent his formative years in Canada, smiling at strangers on the street, and he's dating a handsy Spaniard, on top of that. Please don't think we're all like him." 

 

Yuzuru and Javier are their usual brand of sugary sweet during practice. Javier holding on to Yuzuru's hip with the fierceness of a man who wishes he were grabbing his ass instead. Shoma wants to skate up to them and shower them in ice shavings, cool them off a little. He's almost embarrassed on their behalf, not that anyone else seems to mind. Those who know about their relationship don't care, and the ones who don't, just think that's the way Yuzuru and Javier have always been. Which in a way is true. Although, Shoma still isn't sure what to do with the knowledge that Yuzuru made it happen, instead of it being something that happened to him, like Shoma had always assumed. To him, of Yuzuru's embarrassment of riches, Javier has always felt like the most extravagant, it's almost reassuring to learn he was as hard to land as a quad lutz. 

 

By the time it's all said and done Shoma is an Olympic silver medallist, and somehow still finds himself in the middle of Yuzuru and Javier. Yuzuru hasn't stopped crying for five minutes, it's a miracle he hasn't keeled over from dehydration. Shoma finds himself being hugged by Javier, and for a few, blissful, seconds, everything is right in his world. Javier smells like some sort of woodsy cologne and fresh ice, and his hands are warm on Shoma's back. He closes his eyes and takes it all in, willing the moment to stretch on forever. 

 

It doesn't, because a short while later Javier whispers something into Yuzuru's ear that sends him into another sobbing fit. Shoma is then reminded of the familiar feeling of being an unwilling third-wheel to the world's most dramatic romance. Yuzuru says something in that cloying English that sets Shoma's teeth on edge, but that makes all the press around them coo. Javier just looks at Yuzuru with a kind of wounded softness in his eyes, that makes Shoma uncomfortable for its rawness. Yuzuru makes a show of fanning himself and looking off into the distance like some soldier faced with a desolate battlefield. Shoma wants to throttle him. Yuzuru says something again, sounding extra whiny and syrupy, that sends everyone into a fit of giggles. Javier looks bashful, as if there's anything charming about the spectacle Yuzuru is making of himself. 

 

Some press aid comes to take Yuzuru away, who still looks a bit out of it, but is all smiles under the tears. Before Shoma can follow him, Javier stops him with a hand on his shoulder, and smiles before saying something that Shoma has no hope of understanding. His tone is warm and congratulatory, his English doesn't sound grating like Yuzuru's. 

 

Shoma grasps him back and looks into his eyes before saying the words he's been holding back for a long time now, "You're hot as burning, but you have shit taste in men. Yuzuru's got you wrapped around his little finger, you colossal idiot. I can't wait to get over you." 

 

Javier who didn't understand any of that, just nods and smiles some more. Shoma, feeling ten kilos lighter, grins back, and together he and Javier go join Yuzuru.


End file.
